Universal theme parks will no longer be a part of Comcast if the parent company completes its plan to spin off its remaining media and entertainment businesses.
As unveiled by Comcast on Monday, the plan would see Comcast split into two publicly-traded companies. One will retain the wireless and broadband businesses and the other will include everything under its NBCUniversal banner, such as the Universal parks, the Universal movie studio, NBC, Sky and the Peacock streaming service. (Comcast had already spun off several of its cable channels, such as CNBC, into a new company called Versant in 2024.)
Comcast has for years shrugged off Wall Street sentiments about spinning off the NBCUniversal assets. Mike Cavanagh, Comcast’s co-CEO who will lead the new NBCUniversal, explained on a call with investors, “Where we previously believed that scale and the diversification benefits warranted operating these businesses as one company, we’ve now simply changed our mind.”
Cavanagh also tried to tamp down speculation that the move was a precursor to NBCUniversal being swallowed by another media company, such as Netflix. According to Barron’s, Cavanagh said the “separation is not a step toward further strategic transactions.”
Brian Roberts, Comcast’s other co-CEO and son of the company’s founder, won’t be running either company after the separation but will be “actively involved” in both, according to Comcast’s press release.
For Universal theme parks — which accounted for about 7 percent of Comcast’s total revenue in 2025 — the reorganization would make its parent company more closely resemble rival Disney as a pure media and content giant.
However, Comcast’s diversification did have its benefits, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, when profits from its wireless and broadband businesses could balance NBCUniversal’s losses. That shielded Universal parks from some of the cuts that Disney deemed necessary, like scaling back or canceling theme park construction projects that were already underway.
The separation of Comcast and NBCUniversal is planned to be completed in a year, according to the company’s announcement.